Kitara, the Fox Kunoichi
by krazyfelinelover
Summary: This is a fem Naruto! AU fan-fiction. In it the Kyubii was sealed into a girl, and also the Third Hokage never told anyone which child had the sealed kyubii, Naruto was named Kitara, and treated like an ordinary orphan.
1. Chapter 1

"Kitara, the fox ninja"

Sarah Cox

FemNaruto! Fan fiction

A/N: Okay, I edited the chapter a great deal, and added many details such as Tomohiro's physical description, more backstory for Kitara, including motivations and how Kitara usually looks near the part when the three are first teamed up.

Disclaimer: I do not own any published work such as the Naruto manga, and apologize in advance if I accidentally use another fan-fiction author's ideas.

Summary: The Third Hokage never told anyone which child had the sealed Kyubii within, and made it law to never investigate or speak of the Kyubii's sealing again. Also, instead of being sealed into a boy, the Kyubii was sealed into Kitara Uzumaki. Without Without villagers knowledge of the Kyubii, Kitara was treated just like any other orphan, and was not hated.

Kitara entered the academy early because the orphanage indirectly encouraged such things, although she was never beaten or starved, life was not the best. Orphans only got basic, bland food and clothing, nothing new or expensive in any way. In addition, her odd whisker marks were the source of much teasing, the others all asked if she was trying to become a cat and so tattood or carved them herself. Blond hair was also not all that common, and many belived her to be the child of a foreigner. So joining the Ninja Academy meant she would get a chance for respect and a well paying job early in life. Most civilan occupations would not pay a child enough to survive on, and Kitara did not want to live in the orphanage her entire life. She also learned that she would be treated better and have more chances in life if she joined. So Kitara entered the academy at age 5 and a half. This was much earlier than most kids joined the academy, most only joined when they were 7. However the orphanage was willing to sign permission, and Kitara had demonstrated enough willingness that she was allowed in on a provisional basis, as long as she proved she could keep up with the curriculum. It would require a lot of work and tutoring for the basic skills such as reading that most children had already had a start on learning before entering the academy. Kitara was insistant that she had nothing else, so she would be willing to put in all that effort to learn everything fast.

Kitara had a lot of energy and motivation to do her best, so she devoted herself to learning everything the academy had to offer, and asked for help with anything that gave her trouble. Although she never mentioned it, Kitara wanted to be a ninja in order to defend herself in addition to all the benefits that academy students were given. Kitara was able to catch up with her fellow students quickly because she spent hours working outside of class, with any free time she had devoted to learning. Kitara spent long and boring hours reading and practicing in order to write even simple words so that she would be equal to the seven year olds in her beginning class. Anytime a teacher gave homework Kitara forced herself to not just to do the minimum, but more than the teacher asked. This made her all the more eager to learn other more interesting things such as accesing her chakra or doing the simple exercises recommended to help build up flexibility, hand-eye coordination, and stamina.

Quite a few of the teacher's quickly grew to like Kitara because of her dedication and enthusiasm. So they did not mind helping her, especially since if she suceeded more civilan children and orpans were likely to join in the future. Although Kitara was quite busy learning to read, doing the recommended exercising, and also trying to find odd jobs so she could afford shinobi equipment when the classes moved to practicing with shuriken and kunai, she still made time to try to get to know her classmates. Most of her classmates were from clans so she had little in common with them. Only a few stood out to her; Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuga Hinata, Yammanka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Aburme Shino. Shikamaru was obviously intelligent, and she had been able to get help from him with her school work occasionally when it was not deemed too troublesome. Uchiha Sasuke was the best in class, but seemed suprisingly cheerful. Hyuga Hinata was extremely shy, but did very well in the Kunoichi only lessons such as tea ceremonies and deportmant. Yammanka Ino was loud, confident, and had already taken another girl under her wing, she was also the best at flower arrangement and their meanings. Aburme Shino was always quiet, wore that covering clothing, and also did well in class and was willing to help out occasionally. Eventually Kitara started to succeed, not only catching up to her classmates but also learning the new material as fast as them as well. She did not like the kunoichi only lessons except for cooking, but forced herself to learn them none-the-less. She was especially good with the lessons in sensing their inner chakra and had even started learning a few of the E-rank jutsu such as rope escape and creating sparks. She learned that this was because she had larger than usual chakra reserves, leading the teachers to tell her that her parents were likely shinobi.

Without anyone to hold her back, and with the large chakra reserves required to be the Kyubii's host (although no one knew that fact) Kitara did well in all her classes. However she was considered a teacher's pet and strange for a Kunoichi, (she did not think about boys, took her training seriously, and did not bother to try to make herself look beautiful, wearing cheap and practical shinobi clothes,) so did not make many friends. TenTen, the only other Kunoichi who seemed to train seriously was the closest friend she made, and even then they only hung out to train together. Because TenTen was in a different class they saw each other rarely. Kitara was also aquaintences with Rock Lee, but he was even more obsessed with training and yet only made slow progress because he could not access his chakra at all. Part of the reason Kitara was not interested in such things was because she was an orphan and thus had no money for fancy clothes, and the other reason was that at around five she had a scary encounter with a drunk man during the Kyubii festival. He had slurred out that she was pretty, backed her into a dark corner, and tried to take off her clothes. She had been quickly rescued by the ninja police force, and had vowed to become a ninja to protect herself and help others who were helpless. Kitara had blond hair that she kept short, slightly longer than chin length, and often left unstyled except to make sure it was clean and without knots. She usually wore shinobi sandals, shorts or pants, and a tunic she had modified to have multiple pockets. She also managed to find an old, worn shinobi belt. She had been in the academy a few years, in the same class as all the other rookie nine, so she was affected when Itachi slaughtered the Uchiha clan, because Sasuke came back from the hospital quiet and angry at the world it seemed. Also, since most of the ninja police force were Uchiha, she was pretty sure that the ninja who had rescued her so long ago had been an Uchiha and died as well.

After Itachi slaughtered the Uchiha clan Kitara approached Sasuke one day. She had observed the drastic difference in Sasuke's personality and his broody bad-tempered glares in class. She sympathized with him because now he was an orphan too, although he did not stay in an orphanage but in one of the houses within the Uchiha compound. Also, she felt that because it was probably a member of the Uchiha clan who rescued her, that she owed it to them to help out the only remaining Uchiha. However she knew pity and sympathy would not help Sasuke since he got enough of that from everyone else. After eavesdropping on conversations, she had found out about Itachi slaughtering the clan and Sasuke's vow of revenge. So she told Sasuke that "isolating yourself will not offer any true strength, I have heard rumors that you have vowed revenge. It will take a long time to reach Itachi's level without help, if it is possible at all, so I have decided to help you get strong enough for your revenge." Kitara said."Practice, and experience are the only things we get very little of at the academy, so I will spar with you and help you train outside the academy." Sasuke was surprised at Kitara's knowledge, but realized that even if it was only a girl helping him, it was better than training by himself or relying only on academy classes. He had grunted acknowledgment but didn't really expect much. Kitara may not be like most of the other girls in his class, but she was still a girl. To help Sasuke Kitara devoted herself to training even more than previously, improving rapidly and learning a wide variety of skills.

Kitara sparred daily with Sasuke outside of academy classes. At first she was so pathetic at taijutsu that she was little more than a moving target. Sasuke had quickly overcome his hesitation at hitting a girl, mostly because he half wanted her to simply give up and leave him alone. When she kept getting up, and trying to learn and slowly improving he was impressed in spite of himself. He gradually decided that if she was going to be bothering him anyway, the least she could do was start providing more of a challenge, and so he helped her learn taijutsu. He told her "this is only so I don't have to suffer watching your pathetic attempts." However, Sasuke also found himself being slightly less discontent and haunted by his brother's words while in her presence. In addition to gradually improving at her taijutsu, Kitara also started learning field medicine rather than going to the hospital so many times and bothering them when one of the sparring sessions went to far. Of course, once she had decided on that course she started bothering the medical ninja for lessons with field medicine and any simple medical techniques to help heal herself or Sasuke when she managed to actually hit him, so it could be argued that the medical ninja were just as bothered as before.

Although previously she had worked hard simply as a way to attract praise from teacher's, habit from when she had been behind her classmates and needed to catch up, and to prevent herself from being helpless, now she had a new goal, to help Sasuke become stronger. Because Sasuke was focused on taijutsu and his family fire ninjutsu, she was learning mainly taijutsu, and skills that helped her avoid the fire ninjutsu he was so fond of using. To do this she had to get faster and learn to observe Sasuke closely to find out when and where he was attacking. She also decided to improve her information gathering by listening to conversations of anyone who might have useful information, although she mainly focused on the teachers at the academy and classes that were more advanced than her own.

Although still cold to fan girls, classmates, and even teachers to an extent, Sasuke gradually warmed up and became friends with his sparring partner. Because of the constant practice he put in, Sasuke had risen to the top of the class. Kunoichi were usually graded on a separate system than the boys, and with her dislike of most kunoichi only lessons, exhaustion from the constant physical training and bruises from the sparring sessions with Sasuke Kitara stayed near the middle of the Kunoichi classes. Even with the training Kitara had not stopped doing odd jobs for extra money and saving up, because a background hope for her had been moving out of the orphanage for some time. Eventually Kitara managed to save up enough to move out of the orphanage, and found an apartment she could rent. Sasuke moved to that apartment complex also. It had been mutually decided between the two to move near each other for convenience. Kitara was moving because she disliked the orphanage rules and spent so little time there anyway that it seemed pointless to stay. Kitara was 8 years old when she decided to move out, but did not manage to actually find a new place and make arrangements until she was 9 years old. Sasuke had decided to move because the memories of his family haunted him too much, he had trouble sleeping there. The both moved into the same apartment complex, so that they were not alone and could easily find each other for their sparring practice.

Occasionally Kitara cooked meals for Sasuke, or he bought her grocery supplies since he had a much larger orphan stipend. She had started learning to cook at the orphanage for extra privileges, continued to learn at the kunoichi classes, and was able to learn more quickly once she moved out. Since Sasuke liked the idea of cooked meals not from booths or restaurants and did not want charity, he had decided that it was an adequate repayment. As time had went on, Kitara had moved to become top of the kunoichi in class, especially when it came to practical matters that did not involve flower arranging or delicate chakra manipulation. Both Sasuke and Kitara advanced a class and were taught along with Rock Lee, Ten Ten, Neji Hyuga and a group of other academy students, including a somewhat creepy boy named Hitoshi Tomohiro. In addition, as time had passed it had become increasingly clear to the teachers that Kitara and Sasuke were friends, even if they tried to keep it somewhat secret. Kitara tried to keep the secret to avoid fangirls, and Sasuke so his reputation was not ruined. All the teachers knew that Sasuke isolated himself from most of his classmates and only truly talked to Kitara, even if he tried to hide that. So as a result of this when the genin exams came up and they passed the initial exam, Sasuke, Kitara, and a boy named Tomohiro were teamed up. Despite her frequently distracted behavior and trouble with the normal bushin, Kitara was the top kunoichi in class. Tomohiro hair's was usually very short, close to a crew cut. Tomohiro had hazel eyes and a slightly tanned skin tone. Although he knew the basics, he did badly on written tests, and could barely perform the body switch, although he was very good at henge and bushin. Tomohiro wore mostly standard ninja gear, except he had a sword strapped to his back. He also carried less than the standard amount of kunai and shurrikan, but carried soldier pills and sometimes chakra pills. Although he was not from a large clan, he apparently had a rich sponsor or parents. This was a stronger than average team, for although technically Kitara would be the "average" at least when compared to Sasuke, and Tomohiro was relatively bad in class, Kitara was near the top of class, not the medium. Of course Kitara was only considered medium compared to Sasuke because she had often already been exhausted or planning on how to learn something new whenever she took tests. Kitara was not strong in any one technique or knowledge, but instead generalized in a wide variety of techniques. Kitara learned bits and pieces of medical jutsu and field medicine, but did not become a medical ninja, because while as a female her chakra control was good, with the Kyubii she was not perfect. Of course no one knew the Kyubii was the reason Kitara had such large chakra reserves or problems with control, so the teachers of medical ninjutsu considered this a disadvantage. Kitara had good taijutsu from sparring with Sasuke, and gradually learned bits and pieces of most things including traps, wires, how to recognize genjutsu, adding wind chakra to kunai, low-level fire jutsus, and even a low level wind jutsu, as well as all the basics such as body switching, bushin, and henge that all genin had to know. As an academy student she was really advanced, but because she did not specialize or show off, and was often exhausted from the constant sparring with Sasuke and other training the teachers thought she was nearly average. Tomohiro was primarily a genjutsu and Kenjutsu (sword) user, but had a strange ability to steal chakra as well. He had low chakra stamina and focused more on precise genjutsu to distract, then using his sword-work and stealing chakra to help perform more genjutsu than on ninjutsu or taijutsu.

Kakashi was their assigned Jounin sensei, but the team nearly failed because Sasuke refused to work with Tomohiro. When Kakashi assigned the bell test, Sasuke planned on just him and Kitara passing, and did not bother to work with the "weakling". Kitara realized that the test was about teamwork and that they would not pass if they did not include Tomohiro, so she found out what he specialized in, and decided a mid level genjutsu would improve their chances and include Tomohiro. However, she learned that although he could normally perform the genjutsu, if only barely, Tomohiro did not have the chakra to do so because he had not eaten breakfast. So she reluctantly offered herself as a chakra donor so that Tomohiro could perform the genjutsu, and then while Kakashi was hopefully distracted Sasuke attacked. Because Kakashi was reading, and had his sharingan eye covered, the genjutsu did work briefly, allowing Sasuke to land one attack. Then Kakashi recovered and dispelled the genjutsu, so Kitara, Tomohiro, and Sasuke scattered into hiding.  
Kitara began to set up a few traps, with wires that triggered explosion tags. While this was occurring Tomohiro was resting from the genjutsu, and Sasuke was observing Kakashi. Kakashi decided to be a bit more serious and put away his book. Then, using shorthand gestures Kitara and Sasuke had developed while sparring, the two both attacked at once, with Sasuke using the phoenix fire flower jutsu, Kitara throwing kunai, and Tomohiro looking on in confusion. Although neither of the attacks landed, the two did manage to drive Kakashi into one of the traps Kitara had set up. When he managed to use the body switch jutsu to escape and ended up near Tomohiro's hiding place, Tomohiro decided to try to help out by attacking head-on with his sword.

This gave Kakashi the impression that they were truly working together, so that although they could not get the bells before the alarm clock rang, he still passed them after lecturing them on the Shinobi code, the basics skills that all ninja needed, and praising their "teamwork". After they passed the test Kakashi left and Kitara tried to make Tomohiro and Sasuke to get along by pointing out the fact that Tomohiro was not entirely useless to Sasuke, and trying to tell Tomohiro that Sasuke was not a total jerk, that eventually Sasuke would warm up to Tomohiro. At first this did not work, perhaps because Kitara herself thought Tomohiro was creepy. After getting their pictures taken the first D class mission was nearly a disaster despite being perfectly within the skills of the genin to complete as individuals, because neither Tomohiro or Sasuke wanted to work together. After that first mission, Kitara started training with Sasuke, then training with Tomohiro, reporting the progress each made. Kitara focused on the fact that Tomohiro was relatively skilled with the sword, and was good at genjutsu while talking to Sasuke, trying to convince him (and herself) that this would help Sasuke deal with Itachi because Itachi focused on those skills, and even though Tomohiro did not have the strength, chakra level, or speed of Itachi it would still help to train with him. Kitara also did not forget her own minor goal of getting respect and becoming a joinin despite the odds against females, which she had picked up from TenTen. She knew she would have to be able to work even with people she did not like in order to reach that goal.

When talking to Tomohiro, she pointed out the signals that Sasuke used to warn her of high level attacks so she would not be seriously injured, the occasional morbid jokes he said, and the fact that his cold, moody glares were mostly a mask to try to deter the fan girls. After five D class missions Kitara convinced the two shinobi to train together while waiting for Kakashi to show up, acting as a mediator and training with them. Then the D ranked missions started actually being successes, especially when Kitara told them to think of the missions as more training. They were now managing at least one D ranked mission every day except the days devoted to Kakashi's teamwork excercises and training. After another month and 29 D ranked missions they were assigned their first C class mission. They had to escort a minor merchant from Konoha to a small village in the Wind county, traveling mostly along the coast to avoid the desert. The entire team was excited to be leaving Konaha, doing their first serious mission, and seeing another country. Although bandits were known for occasionally attacking merchants along the route, the presence of a jounin and three genin in full ninja gear was enough to deter the bandits, so neither of the three saw any combat. This disappointed Sasuke who had wanted to test himself, and Kitara as well who had wanted to know if her training would work in a real situation. Tomohiro was simply relieved, since although the training had enabled him to use his sword more effectively and increased his chakra reserves slightly, he still was not sure of how well he would do in actual combat. Still, Kitara consoled herself with the thought of the money from the C rank mission and the fact that she got to see the ocean and a new country, plus with one noneventful C rank mission they were more likely to get more C rank missions.

Even though that C ranked mission was uneventful, Kitara decided that the team needed to learn more, and since Kakashi never taught them, she convinced Gai to let them train with his team, and she watched other teams training as well. Kitara learned of the tree climbing exercise early this way, but Toarji did not have the chakra reserves and Sasuke overpowered his climbing, so both of them gave up on the tree climbing exercise after a while. However, both Kitara and Sasuke liked the idea of weights so started wearing them, although they wore no where near the amount Rock Lee wore. Tomohiro started regularly exercising, adapting Gai and Rock Lee's crazy regimen for a sword and his less obsessive work ethic. Because Kitara wanted to improve her control she kept at the tree climbing exercise, often getting up early, staying up late, and trying to practice whenever there were no missions or she was not sparring and training with Sasuke and Tomohiro. After a while she learned to adapt that exercise to climbing walls, and then could practice inside her apartment as well. It took her a long time to make any progress, but Kitara knew that chakra control was vital to learning new jutsu and using the ones she had more effectively. She could not train to exhaustion since she still needed to be ready for missions and training with Tomohiro and Sasuke, so it took her at least two and a half weeks to be able to climb up her walls as well as trees if she was concentrating hard on that.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any published work such as Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto

A/N: I have heavily edited this, adding more detail, but I know there are likely still mistakes in this chapter, I would appreciate it if someone who knows the Naruto universe well can tell me when I make them.

After that, the team went on more D ranked missions, and were given another C ranked mission two weeks later. This mission was to actually search for and break up a bandit camp. They had to bring camping supplies because it would take more than just a few days. Since Kitara had been saving her money from the missions, she managed to buy a sealing scroll, and carried medical supplies, the camping supplies, fish hooks and lines, and travel food in that. After five days of searching for the bandit camp the team was ambushed. Although it was a suprise to the genin, Tomohiro only froze up for a few seconds before he recovered, and Kitara and Sasuke had been training with dangerous jutsu and kunai involved for so long that the bandits were actually easier, even if there were more of them.

The mission became dangerous when they learned that a B ranked missing ninja was leading the bandits, but Kakashi protected them in his own way by leading the missing ninja away. During the course of the mission Sasuke learned to activate his sharingan. The B ranked ninja had attacked, and Kakashi had used a body switch jutsu to escape. However, the bandits had also attacked while Kakashi was busy dealing with the B ranked missing ninja, the team had to deal with about 15 semi-trained bandits with a variety of weapons, who knew enough to not get in each other's way. Sasuke activated his sharingan while dodging those many attacks, which could have been deadly if a bandit got lucky. There were about 15 bandits, and they were skilled and well supplied compared to most bandits. Kitara also dodged attackes while deflecting some towards other bandits or away from her teammates, and retreated a bit. Tomohiro took out his sword after those few seconds of frozen suprise and deflected attacks with that while also trying to dodge. All three eventually got over the surprise ambush and started counter attacking the bandits while Kakashi dealt with the B ranked missing ninja. After some very intense fighting, to the genin anyway, the bandits were either seriously wounded, dying, unconscious, or fled, while the B ranked ninja was killed by Kakashi. The entire battle took barely 20 minutes.

Afterwards the team was exhausted, and many had cuts and bruises. Tomohiro was the worst wounded, since he had not really had time to use genjutsu he had to rely on his kenjutsu alone. With the bandits not having chakra to steal, he had not even been able to recover the chakra he used to enhance his sword so it would not break and would deal more serious wounds. Kitara used her field medicine and bits of medical jutsu to put salve on and bandage the various wounds of the team and herself. After that Sasuke told everyone how he had activated his sharingan in the battle, sounding very smug. That was when Kakashi revealed he had a sharingan eye as well, and would try to train Sasuke in how to use it.

Kitara was trying to deal with the fact that she probably had killed someone, even if she had not seen them die, but supressed her shock long enough to focus on what was going on.

That information by Kakashi was a shock to Sasuke, and he immediately demanded to know how Kakashi got an Uchiha eye, since he knew that Kakashi was not an Uchiha himself. At first, Kakashi refused to answer, then eventually stated that one of his dying teammates had donated it in the distant past and refused to give more details. Although Kitara was proud the Sasuke had activated his sharingan, she realized that she now needed to work even harder if she wanted to keep up, so remembering that Kakashi had used a kage bushin in the battle, even announcing it to the enemy in the form of a taunt, she asked him to teach it to her when he was not busy training Sasuke. Kakashi warned her that it was an extremely chakra draining technique for a genin to learn, but eventually agreed, after a great deal of nagging and convincing from Kitara that surely just one was within her capability and he had taught her nothing else yet. Tomohiro, realizing he would be left behind (not to mention he might die) if Sasuke learned to use his sharringan and Kitara learned to use Kage Bushin, decided to put on weights and train more intensely as well as to try to strengthen his chakra reserves. All this took place as the team were cleaning up a bit and searching for the actual bandit base, just in case there were more bandits there.

Kakashi also recommended Hayate Geko to Tomohiro since Hayate was a kenjutsu master and could even use chakra attacks with his sword. Hayate was chronically ill so could not go on active missions most of the time, instead stuck with guard duty and various tasks within Konaha, and if Hayate agreed to train Tomohiro then Tomohiro could have a chance to become a sword master eventually. In between D rank and occasional C rank missions all three trained very hard. Sasuke and Tomohiro finally learned to tree climbing excersise and variations. Then Kitara discovered the next step was water walking and with the use of Kage bushin to help quickly learned that. In between missions everyone trained relatively hard. Many months passed, and eventually Kakashi asked if the team wanted to attend the upcoming chunin Neji, Rock Lee, and Ten Ten had already declined or been held back by their Sensei, but they were also a weaker team overall, since they were overspecialized, with both Neji and Lee focused on taijutsu, even if they were very different styles, and TenTen so focused on weapons.

Sasuke agreed immediately with attending the chunin exams, very confident with his Sharingan, but the other two thought about it a bit first. Kitara did not really believe that a rookie team like theirs could pass, but she also thought that it would be helpful to learn a bit more about what they were expected to be able to do and could help them all test their training, so she agreed as well. Tomohiro was the most reluctant, like Kitara he did not believe they stood a chance at making the chunin grade, and he was more uneasy with his newly learned skills, especially since Hayate had said he hadn't even mastered the basics of using his sword effectively and given him multiple drills to do in order to improve before teaching him anything advanced. Tomohiro knew that there was a strong chance they could die in the exam, but eventually decided to go anyway, and resign if he thought there was too much danger. Although Konaha would be hosting the exams in another year, Kirigakure was hosting the exams this time. Unlike Konaha, they were not hosting the exams in their hidden village, but in an area specifically designed to host chunin exams, a temporary village for the duration of the exam that consisted mostly of tents and temporary shelters made of thin wood.

The chunin exam was held in an area that consisted of swamps and a small semi-rainforest that was swamp-like as it was part of water country. Because of this, the chunin exam was small. Two teams were sent from Konaha, Kakashi's team and a team with Kabuto and two other nameless ninja in it. There were four teams from Kirigakure, two from Iwagakure, one from Kumogakure, and one from Kusagakure. The wind country also sent a team, but were ordered out before the exams started because the Kazekage's son was unstable and attacked someone in full view of the officials before the exam started.

Kirigakure's first official exam was an information scavenge hunt/ oral exam. All candidates were given a list of questions to answer about the history of water country, fellow candidates, and the high ranking jounin of water country and its allies. They started in one room, were each given a scroll full of questions, and had to question people, search for clues, and desperately search for the answers to those questions in the only public library over the course of four hours. Once the assignment was given, the team could technically go anywhere for that information, but had to verbally report the information to the exam proctors within the time limit, with every question answered all at once. Each team had slightly different questions, although there was overlap between them. Although neither of the three in Team Kakashi was really an information specialist, Kitara could now make up to thirty Kage Bushin clones as long as she was not going to do many jutsu for a few hours afterward, Sasuke could try to use his Sharringan to find hidden areas and observe people to make sure they were not lying, and Tomohiro was likable enough by now, or at least could fake it convincingly enough, to charm the answers out of most people he asked, plus techinically he could scare them with low level genjutsu.

At three hours and ten minutes their team managed to gather all the information assigned to them, fortunately no one seriously attacked them to stop them from completing the exam or because of their suspicious behaviour. They headed toward the reporting room, and quietly shared information, since one team member would be chosen to report the information. When they arrived, the proctor tested their resolve by questioning whether they were absolutely sure of their answers, telling them if even one question was incorrect they would be disqualified. He also tested their trust in each other by telling them only one team member could report the information, and if that one made a mistake in reporting the answers the entire team was disqualified. All three backed up slightly to go over the information again, nervous and unsure, and eventually Kitara was chosen to report, because Sasuke still did not like talking too much and Tomohiro was too nervous, feeling he would surely make a mistake.

Kitara was able to remind herself that even if they failed the first exam it had been a learning experience already, they had at least seen another country. However she realized she definitely had to learn more on gathering information, she knew that most of the other teams had already finished or been disqualified by now, that her team could not focus on combat alone so heavily in the future. So she wore a mask of calmness and answered the questions without stuttering or delaying, pretending she was giving the report from a mission, as Kakashi had the team do every once in a while for practice and because he was lazy. Once she had given the information, conveying the teams results concisely in less than ten minutes, which seemed a bit odd given how long it had taken to find that information, the proctor continued asking for details and trying to destroy her confidence. After another 15 minutes, with both her teammates standing silently on either side of her, the proctor finally gave up and dismissed her team, they would get the results a half hour after the time limit was up. Kitara did not let her relief show while still in the presence of the proctors, instead her team left to wander and relax until the time limit was over. Both Sasuke and Tomohiro congratulated her on the report and maintaining her composure, with Tomohiro admitting that he knew he would not have managed to answer all those questions with so much pressure on him, and Sasuke quietly complimenting the precise and efficient reporting and Kitara's responses to the mild interrogation by the proctor. Even if somehow their information was wrong somewhere and they did not pass, all three were proud of themselves for adapting so quickly and managing to find all that information.

After a short time all the teams went to the original room where the exam had started. Team Kakashi noticed that the Kusa team had already dropped out, as well as one of the Iwa teams. From the original 8 teams, or 24 people, there were now only 6, and the results had not even been announced yet. Surprisingly, one team from Kirigakure did not pass, all the other teams could go on to the second exam. Team Kakashi learned from Kabuto that most Chunin exams followed a general pattern, with the first test of resolve and information gathering, the second of following orders and general toughness, as well as how well the team worked together, and the third exam generally showing off the individual skills of the survivors. For the second exam, the teams would go on another hunt, but this time for interlocking, metallic, puzzle pieces that would form a password and show the entrance of the building they had to get to, somewhere in a largish section of the swamp. All three of the team were thankful that over the course of their training and missions everyone had finally passed the tree climbing exercise and at least started on water walking, because that was one of the only ways to make it through the swamp to gather the puzzle pieces, either from other teams or from hiding spots.

Although technically the teams from Kirigakure had a huge advantage, all the other teams would also be after them so it was more or less equal. This exam would really cut down on the numbers, since there were only three entire sets of puzzle pieces, with two teams out of the 5 still remaining automatically being cut out. Each team had one puzzle piece, and had to find three more pieces to go with it. Most of the teams would start out with different pieces, and if even one team found and kept a duplicate that would cut down the numbers even more. With such small numbers, there would not be preliminaries, any team that passed would automatically get to the final exam. There was a time limit of six days, and teams would have three weeks to train after that before the start of the final exam.

After signing the waivers that were required for all ninja participating in the potentially deadly chunin exam Team Kakashi and the others started out into the swamp. At first, to save chakra they tried to find solid ground to walk on, or tried to leap from tree to tree, but the trees were spaced far enough apart and the branches were thin enough to make that a bust. Solid ground was also very rare, most of it was muddy at the very least, or so covered in leaves that they could not be certain if there were holes underneath. So Kitara kept coaching Sasuke and Tomohiro in water walking techniques and they started to move faster, with Kitara creating some kage bushin to scout the surroundings and Sasuke activating his sharringan eyes every once in a while to search for the puzzle pieces or other teams. After five hours, with a brief break to eat a small meal, the group started to search for a safe place to sleep.

However before that, they found the team from Kumogakure, and both teams started to battle for possession of the other team's puzzle piece. Given that the team was from Kumogakure, they used lightning jutsu to very good effect, especially with all the water around to multiply the effects. So Kitara added her one wind jutsu to Sasuke's dragon flame jutsu to increase the power in the hopes of overcoming at least one member. It succeeded! One the Kumogakure team was burned badly, and some of the surrounding plants caught fire as well, making a great deal of smoke. Tomohiro had managed to catch another Kumogakure team member in a genjutsu, then knocked him out with the flat of his sword, so the remaining team member, a kunoichi, surrendered her puzzle piece and Team Kakashi left her alone. With two puzzle pieces already, and tired from the battle, the team searched harder for a place to sleep, finally deciding to sleep against a tree, on slightly drier ground than usual.

The three set watches, with Sasuke taking first watch, Kitara the second, and Tomohiro the third watch. The person on watch climed the tree a bit to hide and get a better view. After a surprisingly uneventful night, team Kakashi set out again, searching for the other two puzzle pieces they needed or at least another team to try to take a piece from. All three also headed in the general direction of the building they had to get into. Right after the three had finished a break for lunch, they were ambushed by the Iwa team. Although the three from team Kakashi could somewhat use their surroundings since they were used to some water and trees, the surprise of the ambush nearly ended the fight in the very beginning. However, once the first suprise was over, it was quickly clear that team Kakashi were more skilled and had the advantage since the ground was too soggy to make for very offensive earth attacks that Iwa ninja favoured. The fight dragged on though, since the Iwa team could make very good mud walls and mud clones, thus were not easily injured. If the Iwa team had been ambushed on ground they knew they would have easily won, but as time went on the Iwa team slowly started losing. Once the team realized this they desperatelyincreased the intensity of their attack again, not liking the idea of their own ambush failing, and managed to daze Tomohiro enough to grab the puzzle piece he had been carrying. After that the Iwa team retreated fast. Once they were gone Kitara treated the head wound Tomohiro had, the various minor injures both Sasukes and herself had, and donated some of her chakra to Tomohiro was since his chakra levels were dangerously low, then all three moved on.

They had some luck, and one of Kitara's kage bushin found a hidden puzzle piece to replace the one they had lost. This time Sasuke carried one and Kitara carried the other. As it was nearing nightfall the three heard the sounds of battle, and found Kabuto's team fighting a Kirigakure team. After hesitating and silently consulting each other, team Kakashi decided to help Kabuto's team.

With the two Konaha teams working together and Kabuto's very effective chakra scalpel, the Kirigakure team was quickly overwhelmed. Sasuke and Kitara automatically teamed up to attack one of the Kiri ninja, using taijutsu and their ninjutsu against him. Tomohiro and the two nameless teammated of Kabuto worked together against the kunoichi, since she was suprisingly skilled. Kabuto practically started playing with the other male Kiri ninja, then knocked him unconsous when Kabuto grew bored. After only a few minutes Kitara was able to distract the Kiri ninja and Sasuke took the opporunity to sneak up behind him and hit him hard on the back of the head. Thus the Kiri team was defeated, with two memberes knocked unconscious, one with bruises, cuts and burns and the other with various tendons cut. While the other had been battling, Kabuto's teammates had distracted and held off the Kunoichi long enough for Tomohiro to use a midlevel genjutsu looping the kunoichi's fears. So the third Kiri team member was now under the influence of Tomohiro's genjutsu, staring into space in horror, until Kabuto used some medical ninjutsu on that one and she seemed to go to sleep.

After a brief moment of tension between the two teams, as they realized that technically they were competitors and would have to fight for the puzzle pieces, Kabuto broke that tension. "We shouldn't act hastily, after all there might be enough puzzle pieces to go around for all of us," Kabuto said with a cheery grin. On searching unconscious the Kirigakure bodies, they were surprised to find six puzzle pieces, a complete set with two duplicates. Kabuto offered to share the puzzle piece duplicates with team Kakashi, and they found out that now they had all four puzzle pieces needed. Kabuto's team took off with the pieces they needed and 1 duplicate as well. Now all three of team Kakashi hurried toward the building they needed at a fast pace, before they were ambushed again and lost their puzzle pieces.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch 3: The Second Chunin Exam results

A./N: Okay, I By the way, although I am not a review hound and am mostly writing for the practice, I would like to know what people think of my edits, so if someone can leave a brief review, even a flame for my spelling or the gary sues, that would be appreciated. I know people are reading this because I have alert notices and favorite notices, so please take the time to write a few words.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any published work that people have to pay for, and get my information from wikipedia and what I can remember of the Naruto manga and anime.

Team Kakashi hurried toward a building near the center of the swamp, reluctant to stop and rest lest they be ambushed again. The three all felt hopeful and at the same time frightened, they knew the third exam would be even more dangerous than the second, where all three were already scratched up and might have died. Tomohiro was nearing chakra exhaustion despite stealing some chakra from the Kirikagure team, and Kitara had to have help to bandage up a serious wound she had taken that she could not heal on her own. Sasuke only had minor scratches and wounds, and was low on chakra, but he was in the best shape of the three. Both Tomohiro and Kitara were considering forfeiting before the final Chunin exam started, even if the three all qualified by making it with their puzzle pieces. They knew there could be two more Kirikagure teams, Kabuto's team and the Iwa team that ambushed them, all trying to win as well. In addition, the three knew they had been lucky so far, Kirikagure had a reputation for high body counts in the Chunin exams they hosted, just as their Genin exams were more brutal than normal as well. To even manage to survive the second exam was an accomplishment in itself. They knew that they would be much better prepared for the next exam, especially if they could watch the Chunin final exam. As usual, Sasuke was too driven to even think of quitting, comparing his strength to what he remembered of Itachi and coming up short.

Although Sasuke was not as antisocial and driven as he would have been if Kitara had never befriended him, he was by no means warm or happy go lucky, he still worked extremely hard and tended to brood every so often. Kitara also worked very hard and trained most of the time, but she was willing to concede defeat when things became to life-threatening or when it was obvious she was outmatched. It had taken six Konaha ninja, with Kabuto an experienced medical ninja with impressive combat skills, and still it had taken nearly everything they had to take down the Kirikagure team, despite the relative quickness it had seemed to be accomplished in. Kitara knew that even with the three weeks training in between the second and third exam, they would not survive if they faced another Kirikagure team that was even close to the strength the defeated team had shown. Kitara knew the third exam would involve individual combat, so she knew Tomohiro and her would not stand a chance, and Sasuke was not likely to win either all his matches either, not to mention herself.

Even with these troubling thoughts distracting them and the exhaustion from the battle, the three made good time and as the sun set on the third day of the second exam they came into sight of the building that was their goal. Then they put the metal puzzle pieces together and found the door that would grant them entrance. Once inside they were met by an intimidating exam proctor who demanded the password and evidence of their puzzle pieces or else he would kill them. Hurriedly Tomohiro shouted the password, and Sasuke held up the four puzzle pieces that were already fit together tightly. The exam proctor silently nodded and led the three to a small series of bare rooms, with only a futon on the floor and a small table low to the floor, and with large pieces of canvas serving as doors. The walls were of course wood, and the floor also three were told that dinner would be served in an hour in a large room near the center of the building, and then the proctor left, while with a sardonic glance at the large bandage on Kitara saying that no medical attention would be given until the official end of the exam unless they forfeited. Tomohiro was outraged, but could not summon up the energy to do much about it. Kitara just nodded to herself and headed to the bathroom to change her bandage and clean the wound, noticing with surprise that it seemed to be healing on its own, it was already half the size it had been and no longer seemed life-threatening or even like it would slow down her progress much. Once she had given herself a sketchy half bath with a wash cloth Kitara left the bathroom and chose one of the rooms, telling her team-mates that the bathroom was now free.

Tomohiro used the bathroom to clean up next, and then chose a room, told Kitara to wake him when dinner was ready, and immediately fell asleep. Sasuke took a brief semi-shower using a large bucket with small holes hung from the ceiling and then went to the remaining room and put on his spare clothing that was not torn up and filthy like what he had been wearing, although parts of it had been cut off to use for the bandages. By then Kitara judged it had been nearly an hour, so decided to explore a bit and find the room with dinner before going back and waking up Tomohiro. She found the Iwa team that had ambushed them already waiting, leaning against the walls, and so quickly left to get her team-mates, but rethinking her earlier decision to forfeit before even trying, after all the Iwa team had mostly been lucky, and she thought that unless Kabuto's team was defeated and their puzzle pieces stolen that they would be the third team to pass. To her, this meant there was now a chance of surviving the third exam, and maybe even making a good enough showing for one or more of the three to be promoted to chunin. She knew that Tomohiro was unlikely to be promoted, and she might not be either, but she thought Sasuke was close enough to chunin level to have a chance. Whatever the outcome, with a chance of surviving now even if she did not win, Kitara was determined to squeeze every bit of experience out of the exam she could.

When she reached the rooms, she quickly informed Sasuke that she had found the room with dinner, and that the Iwa team was already waiting. Kitara then preceded to find a cup and fill it with water, knowing from experience that with how tired he was and the fact that they were in a secure location nothing less than water and loud noise would wake Tomohiro up. After ten minutes of trying, Tomohiro was finally up and complaining until Kitara mentioned dinner, then he reluctantly dragged himself out of the room, still in his torn and filthy clothes, and started heading in the general direction Kitara pointed him to. Sasuke also casually made his way, with Kitara giving the two directions, mostly Sasuke who was awake enough to remember, while she yet again checked her bandage and then changed her clothing. She had found that the large, potentially life threatening wound just above her stomach was now simply a large scab with completely new skin having been grown over most of the wound. Kitara was slightly weirded out, she knew she healed faster than most people, but she had never been that seriously wounded before and to have it healing on its own that fast without her even focusing much healing chakra to the wound was unnatural. She decided to keep a bandage covering the scab anyway, so no one who had known of her wound would wonder at its fast healing and assume she was a fully-trained ninja medic or something.

When Kitara arrived at the room where dinner was to be served, she found Sasuke and Tomohiro glaring at the Iwa team from across the room, with rice and other food already placed in the middle of the table, but with neither team willing to sit down and eat before the other. Kitara sighed in exasperation and simply sat down on the cushion provided. Tomohiro followed Kitara's lead and sat next to her, with Sasuke simply glaring at the Iwa team for several long minutes, until the three Iwa team members sat down themselves. Only then did Sasuke sit down as well. Finally everyone began carefully serving themselves, carefully watching that the other team did not poison the food or avoid food that might already have been poisoned. Everyone ate in wary silence until eventually everyone had enough. Then one of the Iwa team carefully rose from the table, with Tomohiro following, then another Iwa team member, then Sasuke, the last Iwa team member and finally Kitara. Both teams exited from opposite doors, and team Kakashi made their way to their rooms. Tomohiro went strait back to bed, but Kitara and Sasuke stayed up a bit to talk of potential strategies for fighting the Iwa team and how they would train in the three weeks provided. They also wondered whether Kakashi would be showing up anytime soon, whether to congratulate them or help them train. Eventually Kitara decided to take a semi-shower and Sasuke went to bed, with Kitara going to sleep after drying off and putting her old clothes back on minus the weights that were sewed into the wrist and leg bands she wore, since she had no sleeping clothes.

When Kitara woke she was sore, but felt that her chakra reserves were at completely normal levels, as if she had not done more than train hard the previous three days. Again feeling slightly uneasy with this evidence of strangeness, she checked under the bandage and found only a faintly red scar where a giant wound had been the day before. To deal with the soreness, Kitara carefully stretched and then lightly exercised to warm up. She decided to let Tomohiro and Sasuke continue sleeping, but washed the clothes they were not wearing and spread them out to dry. Kitara then wandered to where dinner had been served, hoping that breakfast would be served soon there as well. She found the room empty, but delicious smells coming from nearby, and assumed breakfast would be served soon, so decided to explore a bit more. She found a large arena open to the sky in the exact center, and a few more rooms, presumably for the exam proctors, guests, and in case there were somehow more than three teams who managed to pass. She then checked the food room again, and found someone placing a basket of bread on the table, and then heading toward the delicious smelling room again. Kitara followed the man and asked if he needed help setting the table. He agreed, and Kitara helped to place the food in the center of the table. One of the Iwa team members then showed up, and glanced at the food suspiciously when he found Kitara already there. Because of the long history of Konaha and Iwa ninja hating each other, they were very suspicions and on alert in each other's presence. It was a wonder that battle did not break out.

Again Kitara felt slightly irritated at the presence of the Iwa ninja and his suspicion, as if she would poison food that she and her teammates might eat, but had to admit to herself that she did not trust the Iwa team member to not poison the food enough to go get Sasuke and Tomohiro. She knew that none of the Iwa team was likely to eat something unless she had taken a bite first, and resigned herself to eating a tiny bit of everything in order to dispel their suspicions, and hopefully avoid battle. Both teams had refused to speak a word to each other the entire time. After waiting ten minutes, Sasuke showed up, and Kitara told him to keep watch while she went to wake Tomohiro up, saying that the Iwa team member could not have poisoned the food since she had been there first and somewhat loudly saying that she had not poisoned any food either. Then Kitara quickly made her way to Tomohiro's room, and hopefully tried calling his name to wake him up. She quickly gave up and tipped the futon over to dump Tomohiro on the ground, her second method to wake Tomohiro up when he was tired. Tomohiro woke up with a yell, then tried to go back to sleep until Kitara mentioned breakfast.

Then Tomohiro got up, and was about to simply leave while still in the ragged, torn, and filthy clothes he had been wearing for the past three days, until Kitara pointedly told him that she had washed his other clothes and they had dried already. Tomohiro then took his clothes to the bathroom and told Kitara to save him a seat and some of the food. Kitara agreed and then left again, to find another Iwa team member up, with both leaning against a wall and Sasuke mirroring them and glaring again. Eventually everyone was sitting at the table again, and Kitara had carefully taken a small sample of everything to prove it was not poisoned, so everyone ate. After that, Tomohiro went back to their rooms to take a shower and nap again. Sasuke and Kitara headed toward the arena Kitara had found to get some practice sparring in, while everyone waited for the final team to make it or the time limit to pass. About an hour before lunch was served, a Kirikagure team strode confidently in, astonishing Sasuke and Kitara who knew that Kabuto's team had already had all four of the puzzle pieces themselves, but who had planned on resting and healing before heading in. It was apparent that this Kirikagure team had defeated Kabuto's team, and they were probably even more powerful to be so unmarked and relatively uninjured.

Kitara became somewhat nervous, and started questioning her decision again, before deciding that she would simply forfeit if she had to face any of the Kirikagure team members. She realized that she was good at combat, but did not feel it was worth facing death in order to win. Given the fact that to her knowledge suprisingly few if anyone had died, the Kirigakure team would probably want to change that to uphold Kirigakure's reputation. The proctor announced that the terms of the third exam would be explained after lunch, and to meet at the arena for that explanation. Sasuke and Kitara headed toward their rooms to inform Tomohiro of the new information. Kitara discovered that Tomohiro had woken up on his own, but was simply sitting on his bed. She told him that the Kirikagure team had arrived, and what the exam proctor had told them all. Tomohiro stared at Kitara in disbelief, and asked if she were joking. "What had happened to Kabuto's team?" Tomohiro asked loudly. Kitara simply stated that "I don't know, I guess they lost to that Kirigakure team somehow, if I have to face any of that Kirikagure team I'm forfeiting immediately, before the exam even starts, they seem really strong and would probably try to kill me." Tomohiro agreed with Kitara quickly, looking frightened at the mere thought of fighting members of a team that had defeated Kabuto's team so easily.

Lunch was even more tense than the two meals that had previously been eaten, with even Kitara being afraid to let down her guard and sit at the table with so many potential enemies. Eventually they worked it out with one team member from each team standing guard while the others ate, then the guarding team member eating with the other two standing guard. Kitara volunteered to stand guard first, with Tomohiro and Sasuke eating first. Since she had eaten a lot at breakfast, she was not very hungry for lunch. Once everyone had finished, all three teams cautiously backed out their separate doorways and headed to the arena for the announcement of the terms of the third exam.

Without much surprise for the Konaha team at least, the exam proctor announced that the third exam would be one on one combat, but that due to the uneven numbers one random person would be battling twice for the first part unless someone forfeited or was disqualified before the exams began. The exam proctor did not even pretend that the matches would be chosen randomly, just the person who would battle twice. The others would be chosen so they wouldn't face their own teammates in the beginning round, to let them get used to the idea of fighting each other first if two of the same team won. Everyone would pick a straw, and the person with the short straw would have the chance to battle twice. That person would be able to lose once if they won their other match, and if still be able to, could also battle the winners in the final part of the third exam if they were still capable. To her shock, Kitara chose the short straw, and learned that Sasuke would battle a Kirikagure team member first, with Tomohiro getting an Iwa, and she would battle one of each village. Kitara desperately hoped that she could battle the Iwa team member first, so that she could forfeit the second match, but then learned that she would not know who she was battling first until the match itself. Combatants also had to forfeit in the beginning, otherwise they battled until death, unconsciousness, or a debilitating wound. Kakashi showed up after the announcement was done, making some excuse for being late as usual. All the other Jonin instructors had already been waiting for their teams in the arena before the announcement started. He stated his surprise that they had made it this far, congragulated them, and was about to simply leave Tomohiro and Kitara hanging while he trained Sasuke when Kitara pointedly asked if he knew anyone who could help their training. Kakashi simply shrugged and said there would be at least one other Jonin observer as well as the representative for the Hokage who could not come this distance.

Kitara and Tomohiro stayed together, with Kitara feeling vaugely that perhaps this might help them bond more, since she and Sasuke still automatically left Tomohiro out when it came to battleing as a team, only making sure to keep aware of Tomohiro so they did not accidentally attack him or block his attacks. As they traveled to the temporary village, Kitara started mentally repeating the combat skills she knew. One low-level wind jutsu, the Wind palm thrust, the academy basics, good taijutsu, accuracy when it came to kunai and shurriken, kage bushin, a low level earth jutsu, and two low level fire jutsu she had learned after watching Sasuke so often. Her medical skills were useless in combat unless she had a team to back her up while she concentrated. However on the bright side her chaka control and skills with those jutsu had skyrocketed once she realized that most of the memories of her kage bushin transferred to her after dispelling. She could manage the academy basics and the wind palm thrust withough seals.

Kitara also tried to guess the specialties of the various other teams , and her chances, by mentally describing what she knew of them. She still did not know which team members she was battling, just the village of origin. That would be annouced just before the finals actually began. Of course she knew the most about the Iwa team, even if she did not know their names yet. The seeming leader of the team was large- both in muscles and in height. He seemed to be at least 3 years older than Kitara herself, and given the obvious muscles likely very good at taijutsu. During the ambush at the second stage of the exam Kitara had noticed that in additon to being good at substituting himself with his mud clone, he had shrugged off the few blows that landed, one of her kage bushin had even been dispelled upon hitting his chest. That meant he had some sort of passive jutsu to harden his skin temporarily and apparently good enough control, timing, and reserves to battle with it without having to stay still. She knew very little about the skills of the kunoichi, since Tomohiro had battled her. Judgeing by what little Kitara had observed, the kunoichi was good at dispelling genjutsu, flexible and fast, and preferred to pepper her opponents with kunai, shurriken, and mudballs. Of course that was likely inaccurate, the Iwa kunoichi was likely to be good at throwing projectile rocks and earth with her jutsu, and just had the bad luck to be in a swampy rain-forest at the time of the ambush. The third member of the team had stayed defensive for most of the short battle until the end where he had suddenly attacked Tomohiro with the kunoichi, overwhelming Tomohiro quickly with a flurry of powerful blows using taijutsu, while also maintainig a jutsu he had caught Tomohiro in at the beginning of his sudden attack. That jutsu made part of Tomohiro's legs sink into the ground so he could not dodge, similar to the oddly named headhunter earth jutsu that Kitara had learned.


	4. Chapter 4

Ch 4: Training and the Chunin Exam

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto series, or any money making series or work for that matter

Summary: Team Kakashi made it past the second exam, and learned that one on one fights would be in the third exam. Kakashi refused to train Kitara and Tomohiro, but suggested the Jonin observer and the representative taking the place of the Hokage.

A.N: Hey everyone, I have not updated in a long time, partly because I realized that I had no idea where this story was going, and partly because I lost inspiration. I have been watching Naruto anime episodes to gain inspiration, and plan to create a general outline as well, so this story is going on hiatus until I have my outline and have written at least five chapters ahead. Sorry for anyone who put this on story alert or favorites.  
After his suggestion, Kakashi and Sasuke took off to train. So Kitara and Tomohiro made their way back to the temporary village that Kirikagure had set up to host the Chunin exam and started looking for the observer, representative, or even Kabuto's team. Tomohiro followed Kitara, and without words even being spoken Kitara knew he would likely keep following her until they met someone to train them, since Tomohiro would likely not be able to find anyone himself. Kitara then started searching for anyone with the Konaha leaf symbol, with Tomohiro following her and searching as well. Kitara thought about what she needed to train the most in that could make a difference in three weeks, and what Tomohiro needed the most help with along the way. Tomohiro needed to find some way to search for and gather information, he needed bigger chakra reserves, better chakra control, and he needed to learn more genjutsu. In other words, he probably needed much longer than three weeks if he would have any hope of passing the Chunin exam. Kitara thought that she needed to simply strengthen her skills, and perhaps work even more on chakra control, so that she could be ready to start seriously learning medical jutsu, which Kitara had decided was her priority after the exam, she had not liked being able to do so little for her injured teammates, Tomohiro especially since she had finally started liking and trusting him to some extent. She had the basics down of everything, and was good at academy skills and her wind palm thrust, she had even started to be able to vary the strength and how concentrated the wind thrust was. It also did not seem to hurt her to waste chakra and use jutsu multiple times as much as it did Sasuke, so that might mean she actually had bigger chakra reserves than him. Then again, it could be that her chakra reserves simply recovered much faster than Sasuke's. Kitara also wondered at her fast healing, for both physical wounds and chakra reserves. Kitara knew it was not normal, and wondered if one of her parents had some sort of bloodline, for that matter Kitara wondered who her parents had been period, since all the knew was that they were likely shinobi.

After a short time searching Kitara got impatient and created 20 kage bushin and sent them out to search for people with the Konaha leaf symbol, and to simply learn more of the layout of the temporary village's training spots. Kitara considered the kage bushin her best technique, since she could use it to scout, fight, train, and gather information. If she concentrated, she could gain most of the memories of her kage bushin, although she got headaches and became dizzy if she gathered the memories of more than 15 kage bushin at a time. For that reason when she trained she had the kage bushin dispel one at a time, and kept creating more kage bushin as each one dispelled. Kitara usually could create 20 Kage bushin with ease, and she had even created up to 70 kage bushin at once and still kept going, although she had felt very odd and slightly dizzy for a few minutes. Tomohiro could not create even one kage bushin yet, and did not want to even try, and Sasuke could create five at a time, but had to rest a bit afterwords.

After an hour of searching, Kitara found the Jonin observer, and both she and Tomohiro talked to him a bit. He did not specialize in anything useful to the two, but he was a Jonin so he knew a lot more than the both of them. The Jonin observer also knew a few genjutsu Tomohiro did not know, so Kitara agreed to continue searching for someone to train with or spar with while he trained Tomohiro, since as the converstion had gone on she realized she might be competing with Tomohiro in the future so it would not help much for the both of them to train together. When Tomohiro protested, saying she had a better chance at the chunin exam and needed the most training time, Kitara told him "For the most part I know what I need to practice, if I cannot find anyone to help I can train myself using my kage bushin." Tomohiro could not argue with that, and was slightly relieved to have someone to help train him anyway, so he and the Jonin observer went to one of the training spots Kitara had found, and Kitara continued searching. Once she had separated from Tomohiro, Kitara moved much faster and turned her search into training in stealth and speed as well as simply searching for information.

The tempory village was a strange mix of buildings and tents. The roads were dirt and usually muddy paths with occasional gravel to give it some sembalance of shape. From what Kitara could see there were guest quarters for various dignataries to sleep, looking more solid and larger than most of the other buildings. Stalls and tents were used by various vendors of food, cheap weapons, and souvineers or trinkets. The vendors were also likely sleeping in those tents and stalls. There was the single public library, which looked to have been converted from some rich person's pernament and largish house, although why anyone so rich would want to live in such a small village that was said to practically wash away during rainy season, then donate their house to be a library Kitara did not know. Then again, that was just an assumption, maybe someone built a house intending it to become a library, or ordered a house built without knowing the exact location and surroundings. _Rich people could sometimes act very oddly_, Kitara thought to herself.

As Kitara was searching, she continued to mentally reflect, after all a Konoha ninja would be easy to see when she found them, plus she had sent out a few kage bushin. Kitara had already mentally listed her own skills, and the Iwa team. Now she wanted to go over what information she had on the Kiri team, find more information about the Kiri team, and listen in to see if she could find out what happened to Kabuto's team. Kitara knew very little about the specific Kiri team she had seen, and only rumors and history regarding Kiri ninja in general. She knew they favoured water jutsu, many chose to wear odd mechanical rebreathers either due to constant mist or to maybe go underwater, she also knew Kirikagure in gerneral had a ruthless reputation, what with the past infamous genin exam, the bloodline purges, the famous Seven Swordsmen, and the long period of civil war that continued in some parts of Kirikagure to this day. There were also a greater number of missing Kiri ninja that there were from other nations, which probably didn't help that reputation any.

The specific Kiri team that had passed the second stage of the exam was obviously confident and strong. The kunoichi seemed to be trying for the deadly beauty look. Her hair was in some complicated bun, but had real senbon needles sticking out at all angles. Her eyes were lined in kohl, and were a murky brown. The Kiri kunoichi wore what seemed to be a body hugging wetsuit, only using thin, nearly transparent material. The entire thing was a dark blue with wave shapes and swirls of black wire criscrossed throughout as decoration. She wore a standard kunai and shuriken holster, but also had a pair of an odd forked knives, consisting of three needle like blades, only much longer and thicker than actual senbon needles. Kitara thought that type of blade was called a sai, but could not be sure. The kunoichi seemed to be a weapon specialist, perhaps a poison user as well, with knowledge of anatomy if she was actually able to use those senbon needle effectively, but that could also be a show to make opponents think she was merely a weapon specialist. It was not clear yet who the leader or as was often the case, the most poweful and skilled ninja was, but given the track record of disdain Kiri ninja were rumored to have for women, kunoichi in particular because they stepped out of their place, it was not likely to be the kunoichi, even if she was the most skilled it was not likely she would be the leader.

One of the male Kiri ninja wore slightly baggy, but of course water resistant clothing of a greenish speckled color mixed with blue. He also wore a rebreather over his face, and large faintly black tinted goggles over his eyes. His hair was dark brown and styled in dreadlocks. He wore the standard kunai and shurriken holster, but it was sealed tightly shut and made of a rubber like substance rather than standard cloth. He also had multiple pouches and small pockets everywhere, although most seemed to be empty for some reason. He was thin, almost emanicipated and unhealthy looking, but wore very thin webbed gloves over his hands, and odd flipper-like shoes. For whatever reason, he clearly spent a great deal of time underwater, so he was likely a genjutsu and/or water jutsu specialist, plotting and ambushing people rather than participating in direct combat. The third was tall, strongly muscled with clothing that also clung to his body to show off those muscles. He wore a largish sword on his back, and a short sword sheathed on his waist in addition to the standard holsters. He had harsh looking grey eyes and quite a few tattoos and scars, with his head shaved bald and rubbed with some oil to make it shiny. He was obviously a kenjutsu specialist, perhaps even a master. He might know ninjutsu as well though. He would be an obvious leader, except that intelligence and ruthlessness were more often prized in Kiri ninja. Plus all those scars could mean he lost often rather than an indication of vast experience.

Since the arena at the building used for the second stage had not been used for combat yet, only announcements, that was likely where the final exam was to be held. The arena floor itself had been covered in fine gravel to prevent the mud that seemed everywhere. There had been a few short shrubbish trees scattered about, nothing that would support a person's weight easily. There had also been a single stone-lined pond with a wooden platform above it near the middle of the arena. That meant that the Iwa ninja would have something other than mud to work with, lots of stones and rocks but the Kiri ninja would also have a source of water. None of the trees could be used for anything other than cover and perhaps shrapnel if someone tossed an explosion tag at them. In a way, that meant team Kakashi would be the ones with the greatest disadvantage in terrain, although the trees could be used as fuel for a fire for Sasuke and cover for Tomohiro to hide behind. There had been no stands and only a few balconies in that arena though, and from what Kitara had heard many spectators liked to watch the finals in the exams, so maybe there was another arena hidden somewhere.

The village had quite a few people in it, but mostly it seemed to consist of merchants and vendors, bodygaurds, and lots of Kirikagure ninja in uniform and in civilan clothes. There didn't seem to be a lot of tenseness or an atmoshpere of danger depite all the people with weapons wandering about or rushing to some destination. It seemed more like a mini-festival or a bazaar, only everything was in muted browns, greys, blues, blacks, and greens rather than the bright colors commonly found in festivals. The merchants talked casually to each other and the vendors while the vendors called out their goods and prices, sometimes having somewhat humerous shouting contests with their neighbors on why their goods were superior to the others, but without any real anger. The bodygaurds remaned silent or grumbled complaints to each other under their breath, but seemed to be ignored by everyone else. There was also a constant sound of metal jingling or clashing, but there never seemed to be any battles behind the sound of metal clashing.

There didn't seem to be any order to the stalls, tents, awnings, or small buildings, other than always being on either side of the paths, and there were very few strait lines to the paths, most curving seemingly randomly or to avoid various shurb-like trees and large puddles of water. The merchants, plainclothed shinobi, and vendors also shared a great deal of gossip and speculation with each other about the Chunin exams and contestents. Kitara was surprised to find herself and team Kakashi described, with quite a few comments on their rookie status, as well as their chances( usually very low) at the third stage of the exam. Suprisingly when the gossipers talked about Sasuke's chances they were equally low, and there was also quite a bit of derogatary words used in association with his bloodline, but then Kirikagure had just purged and massacred most of their own bloodline clans due to their fear and hatred of them. The Kirikagure team was of coarse praised and given high chances at doing well. It was during this that Kitara learned their names.

-Note: research more appropriate names and rewrite paragraph when access to the internet is available-

The kunoichi was apparently called Masumi Katsumi, and was greatly skilled and precise in her attacks, also good at mind games to phych out opponents, but called a cold fish or ice queen because she rarely if ever showed any emotion other that disdain, cruel amusement, and boredom. The ninja with flippers, webbed gloves, and underwater gear apparently acted goofy outside of battle, but became calculating and ruthlessly efficient in serious situations, some even speculated that he had multiple personalities or that the goofy attitude was a well crafted and constantly used mask. He was called Hisoka Satoshi, he also seemed to be the leader of the team although was challenged often by the third member in casual situations. The third Kiri genin was of course a swordsman, whose stated goal was to hunt down and challenge the Seven Swordsmen who went rouge and return their swords to Kiri, keeping one for himself and becoming one of the new Seven Swordsmen in the process, of course. He was considered skilled with his swords, but nowhere near the level required to challenge the Seven Swordsmen, so was called arrogant, boastful, and cocky, but in a fond tone by the Kirikagure natives. He tried to call himself Katsuo Takeo, but was actually named Kenta Taiki a much less impressive name. Given the large amount of information, despite the potential danger Kitara considered her search successful, even if she had not found anyone to train her yet. She even briefly wondered if the merchants and gossipmongers were actually aware of her presense and were throwing out misleading information for her benefit, but assured herself that not all of them could be aware of her, likely only the ninja themselves had any chance.

It was also listening to gossip that Kitara gained hints as to what happened to all the other teams, everyone seemed suprisingly well informed, making Kitara think there had been some group of ninja spying on the second exam, who had decided to talk about what happened and spread all the news, although clearly they had not learned everything. However, the basic events were talked about. There was the news that two of the Kiri teams had fought a viscous long running battle a few days in, only for the winners to be ambushed by those "nasty, sneaky, sons of bitches Konaha ninja." The luck and sheer balls of the Iwa shinobi to plan out an ambush and have to retreat in haste with their prize was laughed about. The lost wanderings and eventual rescue of the poor Kumo ninja was also joked about, as well as their amusing halunciations after eating some mushrooms.

The local heroes, the very Kiri team that had pulled a suprise win sometime near the end of the second stage were also boasted about. The ruthlessly planned ambush of Kabuto's team, just short of their victory, was praised. The injuries of "that one bastard with the stupid looking spiky brown hair and bandages all over" were gloated over and described in loving detail, although the seriousness of the injuries seemed to vary, with most stories having him at death's door, dying in agonizing pain, but the few that seemed more accurate detailing lesser but still serious injuries. Kabuto was dismissed as a weakling of all things, "that idiot is lucky that he was not allowed to continue on to the third stage and die a foolish death in front of all the witnesses" was perhaps the kindest thing said about him. The third member was a mystery, declared missing, but with many gruesome deaths speculated about. Kitara had gotten very nervous and tried to be stealthier with every negative word about Konaha ninja spoken, realizing she might be mobbed if she was discovered without finding a Konaha ninja to back her up or reaching the sanctuary of the guest quarters.

This did make her even more bitter towards Kakashi, he should have warned Tomohiro and her about the apparent hatred of Konoha ninja by Kirikagure at the very least, not simply left them vulnerable and alone. It also made her even more determined to do well, to prove the gossipmongers wrong, and get the chance to get promoted in order to escape her seriously biased and neglectant sensei. Tomohiro had been the weakest and most in need of training member of their team, and as an orphan ignored by the populace and with very little support or resources Kitara herself could have used some help, but instead Kakashi had just left them in order to train Sasuke. For the first time in years Kitara felt somewhat jealous of Sasuke's fame as "the last loyal Uchiha" and the blatant favoritism he received. Kitara knew he didn't really want it, he would prefer his family to still be alive and be treated as yet another faceless member of the clan, but it still hurt to see the differences in how they were treated. Especially now, after hearing the hateful and gloating words spoken casually by the Kiri merchants, off duty Kiri ninja, and vendors. She had shiverred in fear when the odds of the "rookie team" all dying or being maimed in the finals were spoken of and preliminary bets were made. The Iwa and others were spoken about in smug, superiour, and condescending tones, but there was malice in the tones when Konoha was spoken of.

Yet again Kitara realized that academy students were sheltered from the realities of life as a ninja, even when the teacher's had spoken of the many dangers inherant in the lifestye of a ninja, no one had realized just how much they had underestimated or misrepresented those dangers.


	5. Chapter 5

Ch 5: Meeting Kabuto

After about three hours of searching and stealth training, Kitara discovered that Kabuto had made it back to the temporary village as well. During this time she had eavesdropped on many conversations, and heard about the fate of Kabuto's team. They had been ambushed. One of his team-mates was missing (likely dead), and the other was badly injured, with a broken rib and arm at least plus a whole lot of bruises and possibly internal bleeding. So his team was disqualified even if they had managed to keep the puzzle pieces. Kitara wondered if he would tell how the ambush could have happened, then mentally scolded herself, thinking it would be presumptious to ask. Still, this meant that he might now have time to help Kitara train, or at least be a friendly face in the midst of all this danger. With this in mind, Kitara found Kabuto and cautiously approached and greeted him.

"Hello Kabuto, tough luck with your team-mates. What happened to you?" Kitara wanted to slap herself immediately, tough luck? That seemed quite insensitive to Kitara, who now realized that Kabuto might be grieving or injured in some way himself. "Ahh, Kitara is it, after we split up, just as we got near the exit, our team was ambushed. I was knocked out early, so my team-mates had to fend for themselves, and did not do so well," Kabuto replied. "Oh, um, are you dealing with everything okay?" Kitara asked.

She didn't want to seem insensitive anymore, so she decided to wait and ask sympathetic questions before asking if Kabuto would help her train for the finals. She had heard the rumors that the missing team-mate might be dead, so Kabuto was probably worried, grieving or something. Kabuto and his team had years to bond, since Kabuto had already mentioned that they had failed a few Chunin exams before. Kitara knew she would grieve a lot if Sasuke or even Tomohiro died, so assumed Kabuto would be the same or even worse now that she thought about it. Surprisingly to Kitara, Kabuto seemed indifferent or even cheerful despite the missing team-mate and failing out of the Chunin exams. "That's just the way things happen, but I gained some interesting information on the other teams, and now also observed enough to figure out a few new jutsu," Kabuto said. "Oh, umm if you are not busy could you help me more with my medical jutsu, and just generally training my control, Tomohiro got a concussion and scraped up quite a bit, I was even injured myself and did not have enough knowledge or chakra left to heal myself," Kitara said somewhat nervously.

She had originally quite liked Kabuto, but his seeming indifference to his teammate's fate made her uneasy. Still, she knew he was her best chance at really improving in three weeks, what with Kakashi training Sasuke and Tomohiro with the Jonin observer. Remembering her previous mental rant, Kitara realized Kakashi barely even qualified as a sensei at all. Sure, he had taught her one very good jutsu, was training Sasuke a lot, and had given that recommendation to Tomohiro, _but this was Kiri_, just leaving Tomohiro and her alone here was not very good. She wondered if he remembered his own words about those who abandoned comrades being lower than trash, or if was only supposed to apply to genin teams. After thinking for only a short period, Kabuto agreed to help Kitara train, provisionally. "If you do not already have perfect or near-perfect chakra control, no amount of chakra control exercises will enable you to learn the really demanding and precise medical techniques in years, much less in only three weeks, plus I plan on continuing to gather more information while waiting. Because of my missing teammate, and the injuries of the other, I am allowed to stay until the finals are over, and this is really too good an opportunity to pass up," Kabuto said. "Right, so.. I already know tree climbing and variations, plus water walking to an extent, never tried it on moving water such as rivers or the sea, as well as the academy leaf floating exercise, not just on my forehead but my hands and arms as well. I can create medical chakra in small amounts, plus know how to apply bandages, prevent infection, and other field medicine. Do you know of other chakra control exercises and a medical techniques that does not require precise control?" Kitara both stated and asked. " I believe I have developed good chakra control, but it is not perfect."

"Hmm.. Well there are a whole bunch of chakra control exercises that medical ninja use to practice and demonstrate their mastery; there is grass or leaf floating and actually moving the blade of grass or leaf along the body with chakra alone, say from the hand, up the arm, across the shoulders, then down the other arm; balancing a kunai or later sharpened senbon on your fingertips is not too difficult compared to that; then floating a leaf or multiple pieces of grass while tree climbing or water walking; moving the leaf or pieces of grass while walking, tree climbing, or water walking, balancing _on_ a senbon needle is very advanced and dangerous, not for beginners; and the beginning stage of the chakra scalpel does not require precise control and is a chakra exercise in and of itself, although it takes years to perfect it." Kabuto said with an amused glint in his eyes and a laughing voice. Kitara blinked in shock, with all of her eavesdropping, spying on others training, and bugging the nurses at the hospital, she had never heard of any of those exercises. She had seen Kabuto use his chakra scalpel in battle, and thought it very impressive, so she was also excited about learning the basics of that as well. Just by hearing those ideas Kitara knew she would be able to constantly practice her chakra control, even after the exam; during mission debriefing, while cooking, reading, just walking down the street, and on D ranks if the team was not promoted as seemed likely. Plus, this sounded like it would really help her, tree climbing and water walking were supposed to increase reserves as well as teaching chakra control, so seemed to help only a little bit for Kitara, taking a long time to make progress, but those would take very little chakra once she had the basics. Kitara deliberately ignored the words about balancing on a senbon needle, knowing that even if it was possible it would also take years and lots of injuries to master.

"Wow!, I wonder why the academy doesn't at least tell us about those things, or my Jonin sensei for that matter," Kitara muttered the last part under her breath. "Some of those variations I came up with myself, since although I was born with very good control, it was not perfect," Kabuto stated, again amused. "Who is your Jounin sensei again? I might be able to tell you why he would not know or speak of those things," he asked. "Hatake Kakashi is my team's jonin sensei, and I can already guess that he was just too lazy (_not to mention biased_) to mention those things," Kitara sighed. Kabuto chuckled quietly, then said "You should know, Kakashi was originally against the idea of even having a genin team, he deliberately failed all the previous teams with some complicated and misleading test that would be impossible for regular academy students to pass, all the while excusing himself by saying it should be obvious and playing on sympathy for his past in order to get out of actually giving the potential genin students a chance."

Kitara hmphed to herself in annoyance at this information, it just figured, he probably only passed her team because of their sheer luck and because Sasuke was on the team. Although she did not hold it against Sasuke most of the time, and had even used it to her advantage in the past, Kitara knew most of the village seemed to practically worship Sasuke. And now Kakashi was likely using it as an excuse to neglect his duties because of that! Then Kitara sighed, in resignation this time, it was not like she could force Kakashi to take his duties seriously, she would just have to do her best to make up for that. "That explains a lot actually," she told Kabuto, "he has only taught me one jutsu and the basics of the tree climbing exercise, which I had already found out from othersources on my own, I had to find out about the variations and water walking from other Jonin. Then he just abandoned Tomohiro and I to train Sasuke, with only a vague mention of a Jonin observer and representative for the Hokage. Tomohiro will be training with the Jonin observer I found, since he really needs the help." "Well, if you like I have the time to start teaching you the beginning stage of the chakra scalpel, I'm sure you could figure out the grass and leaf moving exercise yourself, and balancing a kunai is somewhat similar to the beginning stage of the chakra scalpel, Kabuto said. "Almost any of this can be learned anywhere, so lets go to the guest quarters for more privacy." _And safety,_ Kitara added mentally.

After the two walked to the guest quarters, which were annoyingly similar to the guest quarters during the second exam, only with thin sliding screens on wooden frames instead of flaps of canvas, Kabuto and Kitara settled on the floor, since the futon was too small for both of them. Kabuto sat facing Kitara and started lecturing and demonstrating.

"The beginning stages for the chakra scalpel really are quite simple to explain, if very hard in practice." "First you send healing chakra mixed with a tad bit of regular chakra to your palm, then you keep increasing the concentration of both types of chakra while changing the ratio of chakra, then you start sending the chakra out of your palm in as thin a line as you can manage, while trying to get the chakra to curve and then come back, sort of like a dull kunai or shurriken." Kabuto started sending out slightly dark green chakra as he was explaining "you will have to find your own balance of healing chakra and regular chakra, since it varies greatly per person. The healing chakra should easily be able to pass through the skin and provide a slight visible component so you know what you are doing. The regular chakra is what will actually do the damage." Kabuto had taken on a slightly singsong lecturing tone, but seemed to derive quite a bit of pride that he had mastered the techniques well enough to use in combat. "As you saw, there are no hand-signs to help guide your chakra, you have to concentrate and shape the chakra using pure will and discipline. However the applications are extraordinarily useful. By just varying the balance and concentration slightly toward normal chakra or healing chakra, you can cut through ropes, skin, muscle, or even bone as well as the tendon cutting I demonstrated in battle. When you learn to rotate the chakra in a chainsaw motion, it will gain that slightly ominous buzzing tone, and become even more powerful. Medics use it to perform surgery, and cleanly get barbed or embedded weapons out of a patient, but it has so many more uses than that." Kabuto explained as Kitara frantically tried to commit what she heard and saw when Kabuto demonstrated to memory, then tried it herself. "Of course you need a knowledge of anatomy in order to know where to cut," Kabuto added as an afterthought.

She was able to send chakra to her palm easily enough, and convert some to medical chakra, but had no clue how to mix regular chakra and healing chakra together, much less what ratio she was supposed to start out with. She tried anyways, but damaged her hand when there was too much normal chakra and it reacted against the bit of healing chakra badly. Kitara blinked rapidly to prevent tears, hissing as she stared at her now bloody and somewhat shredded palm in disbelief. "Do you want me to heal that, or would you like to try yourself?" Kabuto asked, seemingly in concern, but Kitara detected amusement as well. "I might as well try myself, since it is clear I will need to know how if I am to continue with this," Kitara said with grim determination. Using her other hand, careful to only extend healing chakra, Kitara healed her palm. Thankfully the wound was superficial, shreded skin and some cut capilliaries only. "Do you know how to prevent that reaction?," Kitara asked. Kabuto told her, "try to channel the healing chakra parallel to the normal chakra, in two thin lines at first...eventually you will have enough control that those two lines will be thin enough and close enough to look like one, then you will learn that you can channel them together with no appreciable division and prevent a bad reaction."

Then abruptly changing his tone to brisk he said "If you want to try balancing a kunai on your fingertips, use only normal chakra, but send it out of your fingertip, keep it tightly concentrated, and make that curve sharp, but the chakra does not need to be a thin line, and only has to extend very slightly past the fingertip. The chakra should be thick enough to hold the kunai balanced on its tip without it falling or splitting your skin. I've given you enough to work on for now, come to me tomorrow or sometime next week if you have made any progress or have more questions." With that, Kabuto said goodbye and left quickly. Kitara was both bewildered and slightly relieved when Kabuto left, since she had a lot of practicing to do, and had become uncomfortable at the clinical way he was describing possible self-inflicted injury. Kitara had thought Rock Lee was crazy for pounding logs and relying on the scar tissue that built up to harden his hands, but constantly injuring your hand, then healing it, as part of a chakra control exercise that lead to a jutsu sounded crazy as well.

Oh well, if she wanted to get stronger and be of use to her teammate's, and reach her goal of jonin then she had better get started. Kitara aslo suspected that her elemental nature might be wind, based on the ease with which she had mastered the wind palm thrust, and the fact that she could use chakra to make her shuriken and kunai more sharp, which meant in the future she might mix healing chakra and wind chakra for even more devastating results. She had not been able to afford the special paper to be sure, but had found out about elemental natures ages ago while still in the academy. Kitara left Kabuto's room to go to her own, both glad and suspicious when she found a piece of paper with her name on the door. Kitara made a mental note that Kabuto was very strange and seemed obsessed with collecting information, but since he was helping her decided to let it go for now.

Kitara also planned to keep up with her physical training and practicing her jutsu when she was able to find a secure and safe location, since she had become paronoid over the course of her self- imposed long information gathering session. After sitting on her futon, Kitara stared at her palm, talking quietly aloud and repeating Kabuto's mini-lecture. She didn't even spare a thought for the other chakra control exercises, too eager to start learning the chakra scalpel. For once in her life, Kitara was acting like a kid with a new toy, perhaps especially since toys had been rare at the orphanage and she had never had time for them after she joined the ninja academy. The ckakra scalpel looked cool, and had endless room for improvision based on Kabuto's lecture. Kitara vaugely remembered that something like this was high level shape maninpulation. She even temporaryily forgot her previous lesson in the dangers and pain that experimenting would bring.

"Convert some healing chakra and send it out in a thin line, then send out normal chakra in a thin line paralel to it," Kitara muttered to herself as she concentrated. She managed the healing chakra just fine, although the "thin line" was more thick than it should have been. When she started to channel the normal chakra while maintaining the healing chakra Kitara lost concentration, the two touched and reacted, and then her hand was shredded again. Kitara winced, healed herself, then summoned five kage bushin and had them scatter around the room to practice, deciding to practice each type of chakra once at a time, and making her chakra lines thinner instead.


End file.
